Careers Advice in the 1930s: the Head Master's Employment Committee
Next Tuesday, 21st November, the Financial Services Careers Fair will take place and all boys in the Divisions and above are invited with their parents to hear about the opportunities available in the sector. The School is fortunate in being able to draw on the Merchant Taylors’ community from the Company to OMTs and current parents, whose experience is invaluable to those finding their way in the crowded employment market of today.
But how about the past, what did Merchant Taylors’ have to offer to its pupils at another time of economic crisis and hardship? MTS boys studying GCSE History will all be aware of the date October 24th, 1929 – known as Black Thursday – the largest day of share sell offs in US history….the Wall Street Crash. The shock waves spread across the world and British Schools responded by setting up the The Head Masters’ Employment Committee with the aim of finding employment for boys (yes, just boys) and a team of fourteen Heads and nine businessmen found work for 1500 boys in 1929.
In 1930, the Committee’s secretary spoke to the MTS Sixth Form about potential careers. He advised that a career in the Civil Service was difficult without a university degree and that opportunities in Banking were decreasing due to the mechanisation of branches. He did point out that that the “Big 5” (Midland, Barclays, Lloyds, Westminster and the National Provincial) gave good prospects for employment and one even offered travel scholarships. He also recommended the Insurance and Accountancy sectors but warned that oil and tobacco were over-staffed. Engineering required an apprenticeship beginning at sixteen and government laboratories were recommended.
Mr Davis concluded by stressing the need for a high standard of efficiency for success in the financial sector whilst Spencer Leeson, the Head Master, warned boys not to leave school on the ‘promise of a job from some chance acquaintance!’.
What is clear is that by the 1930s, MTS pupils were being made aware of the importance of qualifications for their career, that mechanisation was changing employment. Doubtless similar advice will be central to next week’s careers fair as well.
Article extracted from Scissorum November 2023
From the Taylorian, 1930
The Taylorian, 1931